Macao's direct gaming tax income for the first seven months of this year decreased 11.3 percent year-on-year to 21.5 billion patacas (US$2.7 billion), according to the figures released Thursday by the Financial Services Bureau (DSF).

Due to the decrease of direct taxes from local gaming sector, which contributes to over 70 percent of the SAR's public revenues, the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) government saw its gross revenues go down 1.9 percent year-on-year to 29.5 billion patacas between January and July, the DSF figure showed.

The SAR government's overall surplus amounted to 14.2 billion patacas, significantly dropping 27.1 percent year-on-year in the period.

By law, local casinos were required to pay 35 percent of their revenues as direct gaming taxes to the SAR government and another five percent as special contributions to the city's urban development and promotion of local tourism.

Local gaming sector generated 9.5 billion patacas in gross gaming revenues in July, and the revenues for the first seven months of this year dropped 10.3 percent year-on-year, according to the Macao Daily News.

(Xinhua News Agency August 21, 2009)